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... "My goal has always been to save a life with this," creator Siddharth Thakur told the University of Texas when discussing an earlier version of the Firebot late last year. "There are over 500,000 structure fires a year. That's one every 60 seconds."

The Firebot is built to enter perilous situations and survive.

As CNN notes, version 4 of the Firebot is capable of handling temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees as it navigates burning structures.

The bot has treaded appendages that let it move up and over the sort of obstacles that fall to the ground as a building burns.

It can reach areas that might endanger the lives of firefighters.

More importantly, the Firebot helps firefighters spot those life-threatening situations before they enter a burning structure.

Once the robot is deployed, a firefighter can control the Firebot with a joystick attached to a laptop to guide it into the structure.

Thanks to an onboard camera that is protected from extreme heat, the robot sends a video feed back to the laptop.

The Firebot can also provide heat readings. ...